Some items of food can be cumbersome to prepare and serve due to the size and/or texture of the food. For example, turkeys, chickens, hams, roasts, and melons are often difficult to carve because the food item tends to move as the knife passes back and forth through the item. Additionally, juices from these and similar items also tend to make them slippery which also makes the item more difficult to hold and cut.
A variety of cutting boards and surfaces have been known for many years. Most of these are simply a flat surface, for example a wood board or block or a sheet of plastic, onto which a food item is placed so that a person cutting the food item will not cut through the food item and into the counter below. The board provides little, if any, benefit in stabilizing the food item while it is being carved.
Some advances have been made over the flat surface. Some cutting boards and block are now made with a recess which in the center which may tend to keep food items of certain shapes from sliding in certain cases. It is often the case, however, food items will slip on even these cutting boards either because the recess is not of adequate size to hold the food item in place or because fluid draining from the food item or which are poured on the food item tend to make the board and food item slippery.
Another advance over the simple flat board is a board onto which is attached one or more spikes rising from the board for holding the food item in place. Spikes, however, present a danger to personnel who use and clean the board. In addition, a spike large enough to hold one item of food may be too small to adequately hold a different item. Similarly, a spike sufficient to hold a large food item may tear apart a smaller item. Also, spikes in general tend to tear food items and may the food unattractive for presentation.
Another variation involves a board having a rod extending vertically therefrom. Another rod is slidably received on the vertically extending rod and extends perpendicularly therefrom, i.e., in a horizontal direction. The horizontally extending rod includes downwardly extending spikes and includes a clamp for being held in fixed position on the vertically extending rod with the spikes embedded in the food to be held. As may be appreciated, this type of device includes all of the disadvantages of the aforementioned board having spikes, and is more cumbersome and difficult to use due to the sliding rod and clamp mechanism.
Due to the inadequacies of the present devices for holding food items, there is a need for a device which supports food items while the items are being prepared for service. There is also a need for a support device which can be used both for food preparation and also for actual service of the food. Accordingly, in accordance with the invention there is provided a device which overcomes the deficiencies of the prior art.